San Jose State showing what they are made of, down 20 to Southern Illinois. It's hard to include them in talks about the MW. When they finally drop down to the FCS level; where they belong. I will be one happy camper.

NMSU will win their conference again, not a horrible loss for New Mexico since it is most likely a tournament team. They really packed the stadium too, I like NMSU over San Jose State in the Mountain West wish it would happen sooner than later

University of Texas San Antonio might be the greatest get that the mountain west could hope for but i think they are gonna stay put in conference usa for a while. stadium capacity 72,000 enrollment 28,000 university rank 79 looks good on paper anyways.

That may be true for Utah State, and i wouldn't mind having Montana join over san jose state but if you look at the pieces that are already there, new mexico state has more. NMSU enrollment is 25,000 plus, Montana 15,000 and stadium capacity is 30,343 for NMSU vs 25,203. The overall university rankings in america have NMSU at 198 and Montana at 207. The difference their is minuscule the biggest thing would be the enrollment. I think Montana is happy where they are right now anyways, if the conference went for a division 2 school why not go for Fargo North Dakota's Bison? Their enrollment is about the same as montana and they are ranked 198 in america by colleges but they do need to expand their stadium size it sits at a measly 19,000.

It's fine I expected some backlash from hawaii and san jose state homers, and to be honest I didn't know hawaii paid for the trips out there. However, san jose state will finish with 2 maybe 3 wins if they are lucky this year and maybe 11 or 12 wins in basketball. New mexico state may not be the greatest tv market but they will end up getting into a bowl game this year and win 18 to 20 basketball games and a 15 seed for winning the wac again. I would take another quality opponent within the conference over san jose states tv market. Not everybody would but it's just a harmless conversation. Craig Thompson won't entertain any of this expansion talk as long as he is mountain west commissioner anyways.

So my idea would be to drop Hawaii and San Jose State from the conference and add BYU and New Mexico State, division look like this
mountain: Boise State, Wyoming, BYU, Utah State, Colorado State, Air Force west: San Diego State, Fresno State, New Mexico, New mexico State, UNLV, Nevada
I think this would help both football and basketball in the conference, basketball wise byu wouldn't have to play second fiddle to gonzaga anymore and new mexico state has been the best team in the WAC for years now. In football byu has had a down year but will bounce back, they are starting to lose money with their independence set-up and their fans are starting to want a conference, saying there is really nothing to fight for after a few losses as an independent. New Mexico State has a 30,000 capacity stadium, which is about average for mountain west teams and they are one of the top four teams in the sun belt every year. Where would the other teams end up? Hawaii would join the big sky making a 14 team conference and San Jose State would join the Southland making it a 12 team conference. The sun belt would then probably drop Idaho making a 10 team sun belt and Idaho would then join the Pioneer Conference making it 12 teams.
I think it would work out for everyone involved, the Mountain West would be significantly stronger overall and every team would have an instate rival except for Boise and Wyoming. The cost of travel for the conference would go down a lot too. No flights to Hawaii really saves money.
Hawaii and San Jose State wouldn't exactly like this because they would lose money from conference affiliation but at least they would be able to compete within their new conferences and stop dragging down the mountain west.
So what do you all think, I know it won't happen but i really think it would be a good set-up for everyone.